View full sizeMotoya Nakamura/The OregonianThe 2010 Chinese New Year was celebrated with a lion dance at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Northwest Portland. Similar events will be happening again this year at the garden, and also at the Chinatown gate.

With the Year of the Rabbit beginning Thursday, several celebrations are planned in Northwest Portland to help usher in the Chinese New Year.

At 9 a.m. Wednesday, garden staff will host an Old Town-Chinatown community sweep, a cleaning of the neighborhood that is also a Chinese tradition the day before the new year begins. Neighbors and Portland residents are invited.

On Thursday, the first day of the Chinese New Year, the garden will host a Tai Chi class, red paper lantern-making, a lecture and a lion dance, among other activities. In the days following, a slew of events will be held each day, including calligraphy instruction, bookmark stamping, paper cutting demonstrations and story-telling. The entire listing can be found on the Lan Su Chinese Garden’s website.

All activities are free with admission to the garden. The celebration will end on Feb. 17 with a Chinese New Year lantern viewing at the garden. Tickets have already sold out for the viewing, which begins at 6 p.m.

The event will also be a 25th anniversary celebration of the gate’s dedication, which took place in November 1986.

"The event kind of morphed into something even more meaningful," said Ivy Lin, organizer of the celebration. "We didn’t realize it was the 25th anniversary of the gate."

Northwest 4th Avenue will be closed between West Burnside and Northwest Couch streets from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. for the celebration. Elders in Portland’s Chinese community who were instrumental in constructing the gate will be honored and have their photo taken in front of it at 9:30 a.m. A group photo of all attendees will be taken later in the morning, and a lion dance and rabbit costume contest will also be part of the celebration.

Lin said she believes this is the first time the gate has been the center of a Chinese New Year celebration in recent years.

"This gate is the symbol of what Chinatown used to be in the 80s," Lin said. "It’s a reminder for everyone that we have a really rich history."